By: Zachary Cutts Disease, the killer of the battlefield! Medical care was poor during the Civil War, and hospitals were unsanitary and so were the camps. The U.S. Sanitary Commission, established in 1861, tried to teach the soldiers proper hygiene. It was a fail on their part because the shelters had the soldiers all in one camp, and that was what caused the spread of disease. It was also the lack of shelter and good clothing. To top that off the food and water was not the best in quality.
These natural killer diseases of the battlefield included measles, small pox, pneumonia, and malaria. Sanitation was a big factor, but was not practiced very well. When amputation was done doctors used chloroform, which basically knocked the person out unconscious. It was done by putting a rag with the chloroform in it, over the soldier’s mouth and nose until they fell asleep and the amputation began. It was not available all the time though. Between surgeries the tools used for amputation were never cleaned. Yuck! There was no time for cleaning because there was always a constant large amount of patients waiting to be taken care of. Only a little over half the soldiers that were amputated survived afterwards.
Medicines of the Civil War U.S.A.
By: Zachary Cutts
Disease, the killer of the battlefield! Medical care was poor during the Civil War, and hospitals were unsanitary and so were the camps. The U.S. Sanitary Commission, established in 1861, tried to teach the soldiers proper hygiene. It was a fail on their part because the shelters had the soldiers all in one camp, and that was what caused the spread of disease. It was also the lack of shelter and good clothing. To top that off the food and water was not the best in quality.
These natural killer diseases of the battlefield included measles, small pox, pneumonia, and malaria. Sanitation was a big factor, but was not practiced very well. When amputation was done doctors used chloroform, which basically knocked the person out unconscious. It was done by putting a rag with the chloroform in it, over the soldier’s mouth and nose until they fell asleep and the amputation began. It was not available all the time though. Between surgeries the tools used for amputation were never cleaned. Yuck! There was no time for cleaning because there was always a constant large amount of patients waiting to be taken care of. Only a little over half the soldiers that were amputated survived afterwards.
Support Links
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/civilwar/p/ussc_civil_war.htm look for the first paragraph for the info.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3912/is_200402/ai_n9408156/ look under Chloroform and the Civil War page one
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war-medicine.htm